ME (:

iS DiGiTAL... ART?

2010-11-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

What defines digital art? is it the fact that the image or art piece requires technology to build it? that it involves intricate codes that only "nerds" can decipher? Digital art is anything that has a twist to it but that can be relatable to humans as well. Lets examine this piece:

courtesy of google.com

What makes it digital? Can you see all the coding, rather txt, that makes up the image literally. The word Keena is repeatedly used to form the image of this girls face. While it takes the form of a human(the humanizing factor) it also required various codes and txt to form it in the first place(the digital aspect). This can be seen in the form of API's VS URL's. The URL is what is used by the actual humans while the API is the address that the computer reads that connects the human to the websites URL they entered. Is this not what digital and just ART in general do? They connect. They connect the past to the present. Past being the inspiration and present being the medium since in the present most everything is digital. Therefore; the ultimate function of digital art is to inform like any other art while displaying the message through a different medium rather than oil and paint while giving it originality altogether. Don't be afraid to experiment so go out there and create your own digital media are to convey your feelings to the world.

God Bless(:

2010-11-17T11:39:00.000-08:00

Cause

Animal cruelty

Animals from oil spill

Transmedia

Cause: donate and help

Ideas

Facebook:

Farmville= spill-ville

Farmville setting but instead be the oil spill and when donate money the setting of oil spill will start clearing.

Twitter account:

Show daily pics of the oil spill

How donations and help overall helping the effort

Youtube account: emotional videos

Flickr account: tag affected areas and then clear them when donation

Billboards: pictures & quotes

Website: oilanimals.org

Game where ultimate goal is to clean up oil spill and save animals. All profits of game to go to help the oil spill itself.

Creative???... Common...

2010-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

All humans are capable of producing valuable art whether they know it or not. That art is precious to a person because through that art the author portrays his deepest thoughts; therefore, the artist hopes to get praised. However what many people do not want to acknowledge is that when they place their master pieces on the internet everything becomes fare game. For instance their strange pictures, while not Picasso’s or Da vinci’s, are still of value to other who might think like that author and so those thinkers might want to take that art and make it their own or simply use the original. Now why is it that when our ideas serve as muse for other ideas we become jealous and irritated? The true answer may never be known but by placing them on the internet we are giving people the go and view/ criticize our work and ultimately giving them permission to do what they want. Now I know that this is why we have copy right laws and everything but many people do not even look at all that legal mambo jambo. What we must take into account is that as the saying goes
Imitation is the Highest Form of Flattery.

There was a case where Ugo Cei, a common user of flickr, was stuck in between being flattered and being annoyed. Flickr is a photo uploading site that lets user share photos while giving them some power over their material by giving them rights to a creative commons license. What this means is that the uploader gets to restrict uses of his work in ways that include no economic profit, recognition, and various other things. Well Cei uploaded a picturesque photo of a country setting that he later discovered was published in a small magazine called Ulisse. He wanted more recognition and was irritated at first; however, he decided to take the high road and said to himself “at least [I get] a validation that my pictures are good enough to be used for a magazine.”

Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based upon it - but only if they give you credit.
Noncommercial means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work - and derivative works based upon it - but for noncommercial purposes only.
No Derivative Works means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform only verbatim copies of your work, not derivative works based upon it.

Share Alike means:You allow others to distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs your work.

From flickr.com. property of Grand Canyon NPS
This image portrays a wooden horse and a great wood horse was used in the battle of Troy... so is this and original idea.
This image allowed usage only if credit given to uploader.

Most of us should take this high road and allow others to make our ideas “better” because to start of the ideas we get aren’t all ours since we too are inspired by other ideas.

And so… be proud of what you create and take imitation as flattery and continue creating.

God Bless(:

Dragons

2010-11-08T11:38:00.001-08:00

bob the dragon was a lonely dragon whose only friend was the sky. The sky so deep blue where no one could see him or judge him, the sky where he could be free as a bird and beautiful as a swan in case you didn’t catch that he wanted to bee a beautiful bird not a beastly dragon). Bob longed for a real friend. One who would allow him to be himself and who would be genuine around him as well. The story of bobs hideousness began when he turned the dreaded 13 years of age. As a young dragon he was known to be the most beautiful the least feared out of all dragons. However that all changed in an instant when a terrible storm hit Dragon Island. A lightning bolt hit his home cavern and destroyed it. Leaving behind crumbles and dust. This resulted in Bob being under all that rumble disfigured and hideous. He was no longer the same Dragon as before. He was feared by everyone and decided to leave the island in search for a better place.

to be continued...

COmmunitites are Uprising

2010-11-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

Many virtual communities seem to spur up out of nowhere but in reality there is always a process to creating a successful community. For instance there is a virtual community that leads members to be able to get help and meet in person at times. TO WRITE LOVE ON HER ARMS is an organization aiming to stop the spread of teen suicide due to self inflicted wounds. The community/ organization sprouted after a group of friends set up a myspace account that initially was to raise money to get a girl in rehab; yet, people from all over identified with the situation she was going through of drugs, alcohol, and especially self harm started and so they started posting on the twloha page and donations as well as support came through. This project, aimed to help a single person, turned into a revolution of support groups for self injurers that now are getting better and are raising awareness of this growing problem. The Internet is their main way of gathering founds as well as giving out support. They have setup twitter and facebook accounts and their myspace is still active. While the process of creating this community was not fast it was effective with millions of supporters now days. This goes to prove that with determination and access to the Internet anything can be accomplished. Just as John Battelle says,

“ And I say to the machine right, which I increasingly don't see as a machine, I see it as a [h]er, intelligent agent or something of that nature.”

The machine is in fact like a person because it connects people that otherwise could not. For instance the Internet can be seen as a friend who has you in their click of friends and others whom she really likes to. She knows both groups and so she introduces them. When the introduction is over with and all the friends start hanging out and really communicating the community is officially established; proving that there is great power in the Internet. So go out there and start an ideal community for yourself.

God Bless(:

This is the official story that they published when starting the campaing, and the community at that, and it was made a song.

Information Overload

2010-10-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

Oh my Goodness I have no idea what to write for this blog. I want to tweet and facebook instead. Oops I just did. Lucy is having a party this weekend. Gosh Halloween sucks. So… what do I write now. I want to watch that movie. What’s it called? The one with… you know what let me just google it. I just found out it’s called It’s Kind of a Funny Story. Sounds funny. Get it? Lol. Like omg I cnt blive dat I tnd 2 rite like tis wen I txt.

Okay now seriously how many of you write down random thoughts all over digital media and at the same time. For instance, when you are facebooking and tweeting do you update your status at the same time; do you txt at the theater while “paying” attention to the movies; how about paying attention to your best friends problems but surfing Urban Outfitters to see if they have any sales coming up? If you answered yes to any of these questions then you suffer from Information Overload with a hint of narcissism. The overload part because we tend to want to know everything from what our planet is becoming to what our friends are thinking (stalker). Why this need to know everything? Because we can learn it at a push of a button. With the internet being so readily available our curiosity builds and builds so we just google what we want to know or just randomly surf the internet while multitasking.

Bing Search Overload Syndrome - Santa - Amazing videos are here

For example, yesterday I told myself I would finish this blog post no matter what. I got on the computer and automatically opened google and Wikipedia incase I needed anything for this blog. After writing only the top part I became bored and texed my friend. Then I looked for movies to go to on the weekend while watching episodes of Pretty Little Liars. While I was multitasking with all of these technologies making it easy for me to do so I didn’t finish this blob post yesterday. Why? Yes, because I’m lazy but also because I suffer from information overload. I look up so much information whether educational or random and then I want to tell the world what I found out so I tweet it or put it on my facebook status and then I place it on my personal blog as well. Overload in the sense that when we google something we also get so many links to other interesting sites that we can’t resist and end up clicking it. Right now that I am starting college this state of overload is killing me. I can’t concentrate on what I am doing because I feel tempted to do something else on the internet or watch TV.

It’s been said many times – information is like food. An appropriate amount is necessary and good for us. Too little leaves our brains anorexic, but, too much gives us information diabetes.

Now, let’s ponder on whether this problem is affecting people on a larger scale.

Yes this problem is growing and now we have to think about whether this lack of attention span will affect the people that provide services for us. For instance, the ER is crawling with people needing attention but many doctors place them in rooms and the attending who are suppose to provide some care are sitting at a desk facebooking. What do we do with this? We should teach the children of right now that they have to focus on one thing at a time. Not just jump from one thing to another. How? By not allowing them to be stuck infront of the computer 24/7.

Stop before you become a sufferer of Information Overload.

God Bless(:

Anonymity and the Internet

2010-10-22T14:56:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LOWorN_sNU

for now please just copy and paste url because i haven't been able to embed it yet.

Sorry that it's so long but my final draft did not show so i'm posting this one... I was so Nervous... Don't laugh.

God Bless (:

"But I can't SUrvive without Facebook..."

2010-10-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

"but I can't survive without facebook," was what many said when we were told that for this week we were to leave facebook. Why, perhaps to be cruel? Can it be done? For many, yes it was possible but I know a few people like me that cracked. I just recently became fascinated with this social site. Facebook is a community to me because people constantly communicate through it. I wasn't to thrilled to log off for a week but I knew I could tweet so I felt relief. Many are like yahoo vs. google with twitter and facebook but I feel that both are respectable. My facebook was not that conversation filled but since I logged off I had so many wall postings and it's so weird. I'm not a total facebook addict and besides I had twitter, and plurk (although my friends don't have an account on this), as well as other sites that helped me communicate. however, messages are replied to faster on facebook since most facebook all the time. For me logging of wasn't excruciating but I still want to be able to log on and post on my friends wall... Hope everyone survived.

God BLess (:

Multitasking is a Myth

2010-10-06T15:08:00.001-07:00

In this weeks discussion in class we pondered over "continuous Partial attention" Have you heard of that? Do you partake in it? Let me tell You that you do! We all do. For instance when we talk on the phone and listen to music we are partaking in continuous partial attention. When we do homework for the next class and take notes for the class we are in, we are paying only partial attention. Our attention span as 21st century livers is quickly diminishing as we have more and more things to do and so little time.

This has been demonstrated to me as I did my homework for atec2322 this week. Our assignment included reading continuously for 40 minutes. Man was this hard. I choose to read Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild. While an easy read i found it extremely hard to concentrate on the reading and the story. As Pauline sought out her talent as an actress I was worried if someone had texted me. As Petrova found that piloting was where she could exercise her practical skills I kept on wanting to reach for the keyboard, log onto facebook and see what my friends were doing. And finally as Posy reached her dream of becoming a ballerina as her mother once was i shamefully agree that I cracked and checked my twitter.

Therefore I ask you, Can you truely partake in "continuous partial attention" and successfully be engaged in all the activities? and can you not be in "continuous partial attention."

further search about partial attention
lifehacker.com

God Bless(:

http://vimeo.com/7551900

Cyber Bullying has to STOp

2010-10-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

While the internet is useful to an extreme, the internet has a dark side as well. Beyond the day to day hacking, virus spreading, and traumatizing yet hilarious YouTube videos the internet can be deadly. Why, Because bullying has been taken to an extreme through the different domains of the internet. The internet allows people to connect, to share information, to make friendships and to HARASS. While some may say that this shouldn’t be a problem because it is not physical pain the people, mostly teens, are inflicting on each other that it shouldn’t matter well they should learn that mental bullying is more hurtful that physical bullying sometimes. Yes, the internet facilitates the bullying by giving the bully anonymity and no immediate trace to his crime. The ignorant cowards feel power by publicly displaying the weaknesses of others which leads the vulnerable to suicide, addictions, and other harmful activities. Sadly the number of teen suicides to cyber bullying keeps increasing and justice is not increasing at the same rate.

In recent cases the cyber bullying takes in the form of sending harmful, threatening and just plain mean messages via E-mail, Instant Messaging (IM), Text messages or digital images sent on mobile phones, Social networking sites, web pages, blogs, virtual worlds, Chat rooms or discussion groups as well as Interactive game sites, says http://www.makeadifferenceforkids.org/cyberbullying.html. Here a grieving mother speaks the truth when she states:

"With the keyboard as his weapon, the bully violated the sanctity of my home and murdered my child just as surely as if he had crawled through a broken window and choked the life from Jeff with his bare hands. It was not a death that was quick and merciful. It was carried out with lies, rumors and calculated cruelty portioned out day by day.” - Debbie Johnston

This is but one of the harming sides of the internet and so I ask you -do you believe increasing the number of social sites worth increasing the number of ways for teens to harass other teens like Rachael Neblett, Ryan Halligan, Jeffrey Johnston, Megan Meier, and the recently deceased Seth Walsh, Tyler Clementi, Phoebe Prince and countless others who were just beginning to live?

God Bless (:

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-701&p=stop+cyber+bullying&vid=255653773457&dt=1210924790&l=68&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fts2.mm.bing.net%2Fvideos%2Fthumbnail.aspx%3Fq%3D255653773457%26id%3Df29266dd85e777663602e09e16b449b5%26bid%3D1mUN06IjrDfdIQ%26bn%3DThumb%26index%3Dch1%26url%3Dhttp%253a%252f%252fvideo.yahoo.com%252fwatch%252f2678248&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fwatch%2F2678248%2F7840278&tit=Cyber-bullying+stops+NOW&sigr=11cvc2ht6&newfp=1 ----- check this simple yet great video about stoppying bullying.

WiKi

2010-09-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

Today I feel so power full. Why? Because I edited a Wikipedia page which means that the information I posted about photography will be helpful to someone. At first I was reluctant to do this assignment because I was like “no one cares and what if I give inaccurate information” but then I realized that I can just truly research the subject and link pages to develop credibility; therefore, I am excited and cannot wait to edit another page. As we discussed in class Wikipedia did not anticipate how successful the site would become and so now the people are the ones who keep the website up to date. I am glad to be part of this revolution of self-editing and put my point of view on different subjects but as I mentioned before keeping my information credible by giving links to where other places have the same information or information relevant to that subject. In my editing of the photography page in Wikipedia I expanded on the subject of fashion and photography. The different kinds of commercializing it and included a like to Harper’s Bazaar because it is a high fashion magazine that displays much photography but in an artful not hooch form. hope you guy's had as much fun and empowerment as i did.

God BLess (:

The New Billboard

2010-09-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

what is happening to the overusers of products

When I think of emerging media and communications I tend to think of technology automatically and now to hear about tattoos becoming the new billboards seems farfetched to me. There are multiple companies who pay, with cash or free merchandise, people to tattoo their company logo or related images on their bodies for publicity. What is up with this? While I am not being very bias here, I think this is Crazy. Some like to call it expressing themselves and excuse the action by stating that it is an art. Seriously? Is art not expressing one’s self? When one tattoos themselves with company logos they are not expressing themselves, they are expressing the views of others. While at times one believes in similar things no one person tends to be exact in though with another person. This brings me to the question: are tattoos to be considered part of the “emerging media”? Tattoos have been around for some time now but using them for propaganda is new and strange to me. I guess I didn’t realize that like Ben Kunz says,” It's hard to step back and realize we're already living in the future. I got frustrated the other day that it took 30 seconds for my mobile phone to load a web page with a story from Wired ...and then I thought, I'm magically receiving any document I desire from anywhere in the world through the air to arrive on a tiny glass object smaller than a deck of cards.We already have the future. And yet we always want more.”

God Bless (:

Speech Impared

2010-09-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever stopped to think about how we as an evolving society are becoming less speech dependent to express our feelings and more technological for everything; even to apologize? I came upon this very funny but truthful piece about apologizing that made me go “me too!”

Here blogger Vinnie Cappetta ( http://checkyourcompass.blogspot.com/?expref=next-blog )
argues that he finds it hard to simply say “I am sorry” even while he establishes his credibility as a pastor which made me think, “If a religious person finds it hard to apologize how do the rest of us “sinners” make friends?” A lot of thinking then occurred because for this ATEC 2322 class we discuss the subject of communication quite a bit so it’s like how strange that this pastor resorts to blogging to fez up to his mistakes instead of just going to that person to apologize.

I have a theory that soon we as a society will become speech impaired because we need to write down what we are going to say many times, as Vinnie Cappetta demonstrates,

“Since my mouth has such a hard time forming the words, "I am sorry," I thought I would print them on a piece of paper and hold up the paper whenever I want to say I am sorry.”

Weird huh? I personally hear that couples break up over txt messages, how they write down their speeches and recite them like robots not speak them, how most phone companies have evolved their plans to include unlimited txts because that is what most people part take in multiple times . Even older generations have started to txt and email everything instead of speaking it like they use to in their not so technological childhoods.

This brings up the question about security being found in staying anonymous or simply not face to face to that person but I will discuss that some other time.

God Bless (:

Minorities

2010-09-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

I don't want to be him (:

Well what can I say? I have been repeatedly informed all my life that I am a minority; yet, it has never really impacted me because of where I live and who I talk to until this fall semester at The University of Texas at Dallas. I come from a community where all the members are Hispanic or African American so although I hear about my minority status through the history books I have always been the majority where I live. I attended the summer Academic Bridge Program at UTD during the summer but I was still the majority because part of the mission of the ABP Family is to help minorities succeed in college and I was still the majority but now that the Fall semester has started I am surrounded by nothing but white people. It’s weird to see how I am the sore thumb now. I feel so special but it doesn’t really affect me that I am the minority, or so I feel right now, because one of the great things about college life is that I am independent and the whole gossiping clicks don’t really exist. Why? That brings me to another point about minorities which is that in high school minorities segregated themselves automatically even though the goal of Americans is to stop segregation and discrimination. Whatever the case may be I am a Hispanic and will not stop being one even if I don’t want to be considered a minority. As long as I don’t feel discriminated against because of my race I am okay being here at The University of Texas at Dallas.

AutoBiography

2010-08-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

My full name is Maria-Emilia Cristina; however, Emilia is what I prefer to be called for I feel it perfectly describes me. Rival and admiring is what Emilia is defined as and I can give testimony of its truth for I tend to be my own worst enemy and admiring for I stand in awe in the presence of those who can overcome all of the turbulences that they are confronted with and rise as better people. I aim to follow their attitude; therefore, I follow my Catholic religion as best as humanly possible for I know that this is what will lead me to salvation and the ultimate prize of standing in the presence of Jesus-Christ, father and redeemer of all. Well as can be concluded I am crazy about God. I was raised with multiple Catholic values and I try to exercise these values every day; yet coming from a family of thirteen brothers and sisters this is highly difficult. Yes, you do have your glasses on. You have read right my family is composed of thirteen brothers and sisters from the same mother and father. As I mentioned before my family is strictly Catholic and do not believe in the use of contraceptives for they deprive a life from forming. Me? I completely believe this and I am one hundred percent pro-ABSTINENCE.

I was born in Guanajuato, Mexico; however, I was raised in Dallas, Texas from the tender age of four. Since my arrival here I have not returned to my native land; however, my heart yearns to set my bare feet on the moist land and sierras that surround the rancho of where my non-immediate family resides. I recently graduated from Skyline Center High School in Dallas and my next step was to enroll and take part of The University of Texas at Dallas’s Academic Bridge Program which allowed me to get a head start in my college experience by attending summer classes and living on campus all expenses paid. I am truly grateful for this for I learned so much and received credit for the required courses saving me time and money. Now that summer is over I am a true freshman and feel awesome.
Some of my hobbies include drawing (not a great artist but I love it so if the image looks funny I say it’s an abstract piece), writing whether poetry or funny short stories, playing the guitar or rather the scales since I barely started to learn, singing since I’m part of the choir at my church and of a Christian-Catholic band (and I have to say that I think they turn off my microphone when I start to sing), dancing like a total dork but not caring, going to church and just hanging out with friends.

My aspirations include not tripping while I cross the stage to receive my college diploma, pursuing my photojournalist degree and going pre-med in this process (it seems impossible but I have my trust in God and I know that I will achieve this); therefore, I am currently majoring in Emerging Media and Communications and Biology, and ultimately going in missions to help those less fortunate. Allow me to get off subject for a second; yet, I feel the urge to inform others of the epiphany I experienced about the truth about how “poor” I and many others are. There are children out there who wish for nothing more than to see their family again after being separated, children out there who want nothing more than someone to say, “I love you”, fetuses who are already fighting against death by abortion , and children out there who are dying of nothing but cold and hunger; therefore, I am the richest person in the world for I have a family who loves and annoy me, a warm meal and bed that greet me every day, friends who entertain me in the moments when I feel like crap and ultimately Jesus who never abandons me but rather forgives me even in the times I want to go into an eternal sleep (but not really for suicide is a sin). Instead of complaining all the time I look to the good things in life and at the misery of others who rise above it all. I also desire to live my life in peace and love.

I decided to deprive corporate America from feeding me feces in the form of gross meat. I have been a vegetarian for more than three years now and I feel contempt with myself for doing so. Not very tall but can still defend myself, not very slim for I am big boned (or so I tell myself to not become anorexic), big nopal on my frente and proud of it, and some might say sarcastic-they’re nothing but idiots without a sense of direction, and tired of complaints and excuses (but not when I feel it necessary for me to present them) and glad to be where I am at this moment.

I was at the top of the world yesterday because I was approved for my fist credit card, got a bank account that gave me a debit card and checks which made me feel so powerful, muah-ah-ah-ah, but then I went to go get my books and I was brought back to earth because I basically can’t use any of the items I received because the books for this semester were so expensive. Man I didn’t think college would be so expensive ):

God Bless (:

P.S. Sorry that my post is so long but I love talking or rather typing the words out.